Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I had finals, now that they're over, here's a long chapter, well, long for me.
Disclaimer: All Iron Man characters belong to Marvel and the producers of the movie.
Chapter 4
This is getting creepy.
"Tony" We say at the same time. James, I mean Rhodey takes the opportunity to introduce us.
"Tony, this is… " He started to say.
"We met before" Tony interrupted him. Ouch, time to lighten up the mood.
"Rhodey huh?" And they both look at me. "It's nice, it has an Y at the end, that's good" Okay, so I'm bad at cutting tension off. Boo hoo.
"My name has an Y at the end" Tony said. Huh, it's true, Tony.
"Yeah, it's true!"
"Are you…" Rhodey started to ask me but Tony put a hand on his shoulder.
"Rhodey, I think they need to talk to you over there" And gave him a push towards 'over there'.
"That was mean" I said when Rhodey was already 'over there'. Poor Rhodey.
"I am mean"
"I thought you were Tony" He chuckled.
"How drunk are you?" He asked. I looked over my now empty glass.
"I think they put more rum than coke"
"How about you sit down?" And he sits me down on one of the bar stools.
"Shouldn't you be recovering from all that has happen to you" I asked swinging left to right.
"I was invited. What are you doing here?"
"I was invited by a bunch of people who think I made a huge mistake in my career choice" I said looking around.
"What is your career choice?" He stopped me from swinging. Good, I was starting to get sick.
"I'm a photographer. Don't worry, I only do art stuff, or fashion stuff, or other related stuff"
"That's not so bad"
"Tell that to my dad, although he doesn't really care. But my uncle, now he was disappointed when he found out I didn't want to follow up his steps"
"Who's your uncle?"
"Was. He's dead"
"Well, who was him?"
"Norman Osborn" But he was like a distant uncle because his wife was my mother's sister.
"I knew him, I went to his funeral"
"I didn't"
"Knew him or the other thing?"
"I think both" Now that I think about it, I really didn't know him much. Harry didn't even know much about him, and he was his freaking son!
"Why?"
"I don't know, I mean, he didn't talk much about his personal life and-"
"I meant the funeral. Not that I don't want to know about your family's problems" I have yet to know if that's sarcasm or not.
"Right" How embarrassing. "I was in China taking photos of this temple"
"So you literally were in the other side of the world"
"You never heard that excuse before"
Awkward silence.
Tony seems to pay more attention to my glass.
"Seriously, how much have you been drinking?" He says, looking how drunk I am.
"Just one glass, I swear!" I think. Then the bartender came to us.
"Actually, she had three" He said.
"Really? I don't remember" Then I thought about it. "Why did you keep serving me?"
"Yeah! Why did you keep serving her?" Said Tony.
"She looked like she needed it" Tony turns to look at me.
"I don't do well in these things" I said looking down.
"I can see that"
"Can I order another one?"
"No!"
"Worth the shot" I muttered.
What's that sound?
"What's that sound" Tony asks.
"I don't know" I don't know, I don't know, I don- Wait! My phone! "My phone!" I searched my purse. And there it is my phone. "Hello?" I answered it.
"You need to hide"
"Julie!"
"Hide!"
"Why?"
"Christine is here, and she's not happy"
"She's never happy" She isn't.
"And she's not going to be if she sees you with Stark.
"You have a point"
"Hide" And she hung up.
"We need to hide" I said getting up and pulling Tony's hand.
"Why?"
"Because the wicked witch of the west is on the way" I said pointing at Christine.
"Let me guess, you're Dorothy" Tony said when we reached this empty hallway.
"Well of course" I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And we need to hide from her beca- well I need to hide from her; you can go back if you want to"
"I could" He takes a seat in a bench. "But I won't"
"Good choice, I mean, Christine is a good… she's a good… reporter?... but she gets mean when… when, well, mostly all the time, and is not wise to be on her bad side. Trust me.
"She didn't seem so bad when she was interviewing me"
"Yeah, but that was before you had sex with her. Now is a whole different story"
"How do you know that?"
"You think she'll pass a chance to gloat about the fact that she slept with Tony Stark?" He looked sheepish. "Besides, you could see on her face that she was pissed with the way she was send off the morning after" Now that I think about it. "How did you send her off?"
"I didn't. My assistant did"
"Burn!" I need proof. "You have security cameras in your house, right?"
"Yes?" He said cautious.
"Then you can loan me the tape that has- what's your assistant's name?"
"Pepper"
"That has Pepper throwing Christine out of your house?" Please.
"Well…"
"Wait! Does it have audio?"
"Yes, but-"
"Please! Please, please, please, please"
"Alright, just stop"
"Thanks, when will you be able to send it? Because I'm leaving in three days, so if you can't send it in that time, I can give you my-"
"Wait, you don't live here?"
"Oh no, I'm a east coast type of girl. That didn't sound so good."
"So what part of the east coast are you from?"
"Manhattan. Do you live in LA?"
"Malibu" I giggled.
"What?"
"Sounds funny. Malibu" Another giggle.
"You're drunk" He stated.
"You're not. Shame on you"
"C'mon, let's get you something to sober you up" He says getting up and leading me by the hand towards the exit.
"Coffee?"
"Yeah, that might work"
"Coffee!"
"That means we have to get out of here"
"Good" I'm tired of this place. We keep walking but the door is locked. That leaves us with only one exit, and to get to that exit we need to pass the crowd. And I don't want to. "This building hates me"
"Don't be so narcissistic, it hates me too." And we headed to the unspeakable place. And it is unspeakable; I don't know how it's called.
We are halfway through the crowd when Pepper comes to us.
"Tony, you need to answer some questions outside" She says looking uncomfortable by the fact that she stopped us. And I don't blame her, imaging how we look like, with Tony trying to get me out of this place in my state and- Okay! We are not getting there!
"Alright" He says, and then he turns to me and says."Stay here" And walks off. I turn to Pepper.
"Hi, I'm Darla Townsend" I said holding out my hand.
"Pepper Potts" She said shaking my hand.
"Pepper Potts" I repeated."You're the one that kick Christine out of your boss's house, right?"
"Um, yes"
"Consider me your number one fan, I always wanted to kick her"
"Out of someone's house?"
"No, just kick her"
So we talked for a while, a thirty minute while, and I realize two things: 1) Pepper's nice. And 2) her boss just stood me up.
"So I have to kick the sack, it's been a long day" I said and pull my card out of my clutch. "Please do call me, we can have lunch sometime" I handed her the card. "In the next three days"
"Alright, I'll call you. And I'm really sorry for the…"
"If we don't mention it, it will be much better"
"Sorry"
All the way to the hotel, from the moment I took the cab, to the moment I reached my suite, all I could think was one single thing.
Tony Stark. You asshole!